Series Weirdness

[Gripweed]

I just want to make a note of a little weirdness I just found. For the record I'm using epg123 version 1.6.1.1 on Win7. I was looking through WMC's Guide for the next few days. There I found a Series entry for Dateline NBC for a local OTA NBC channel, 28.1. I have never set up a Series record for that show, ever. I checked in WMC's Series list and in the Scheduled Recording list and nothing was shown there. I even checked using the Transfer Tool and Dateline NBC wasn't listed at all on the right side in any shade of green or any other color. As I said, weird. So, I went back to the WMC Guide and removed the Series record entry for Dateline NBC and all seemed well.
Fast forward a few hours and I'm looking through WMC's Scheduled Recording list and I notice that Law & Order SVU is not listed for 1/21/21. I know for a fact that it is set to air and it was listed on the list as a Series record just this morning. I check the Series list and L&O SVU is gone. I didn't think to check the Transfer Tool. I went back and added L&O SVU as a Series record again and all looks correct again. It was at that point that I realized that L&O SVU was scheduled for 9pm on NBC on 1/21/21 and is followed by Dateline NBC at 10pm. Could the shows somehow got transposed in the Series recording list?
My suggestion to all is to keep an eye on your scheduled programs especially the Series ones. Start off by looking through the WMC Guide to see if there are any records that you didn't set up or records that are missing, again, especially of the Series type.

[Gripweed]

I don't believe it. The Series record for Dateline NBC is back but in a weird (there's that word again) way. In WMC's Guide it is showing up on 1/24/21 as a recording for a generic listing (meaning not showing any specific SxxExx name or episode description.) There are other showings for Dateline NBC including one with a new SxxExx episode but none of the other showings are marked for either Series or OneTime records. As before, the marked Series record is not listed in the Scheduled Recordings list or on the Series list or Transfer Tool.
I'm just going to leave it alone to see what happens.

[garyan2]

This may be a side effect of my verification routine. For versions v1.6.0.x, I was reusing schedule entries when a program changed in the guide. It may be possible that the schedule entry was SVU and was changed to Dateline by epg123, and then became part of the series request. Canceling the series recording on Dateline was effectively cancelling SVU.

I changed the verify routine to not reuse a schedule entry if it is in any scheduled recording requests in v1.6.1.0 unless the program it is replacing is of the same series and is a generic entry. This will avoid to the above scenario, though I thought it was only a risk for OneTime requests and not series requests. With a new series request for SVU, you should be good.

[Gripweed]

That sounds like a reasonable explanation. But what about the Dateline generic I have now? Can I remove it without endangering any other show? As I said, I'm running 1.6.1.1 so by what you are saying I shouldn't have a problem but then again I was running 1.6.1.1 when I noticed I lost SVU. I was about to install 1.6.1.2 but I decided to hold off until this problem was solved even though 1.6.1.2 seems to deal mostly HDHR issues.

[garyan2]

I'll use the word too... That's weird. I'd let it be for now and see what it looks like after an update and reindexing of the database and PVR schedules.

If you ran v1.6.0.x prior to v1.6.1.1 within the last 2 weeks (or however many days you download), then the reuse of a schedule entry could have happened during that time. It doesn't matter what version you are currently running. Unfortunately my logs only go back to 1/17 so I can't see when it might have happened.

You may just need to let it record and delete it afterwards. Based on what you described, I think if you cancel it then the 1/28 generic Dateline NBC will be scheduled.

[garyan2]

Just out of curiosity, and to maybe understand a little better how WMC handles changes in recording requests, I wonder what would happen if you created a series request for 'Dateline NBC' and then a few seconds later canceled it, would the rogue request still be there?

[Gripweed]

Just out of curiosity, and to maybe understand a little better how WMC handles changes in recording requests, I wonder what would happen if you created a series request for 'Dateline NBC' and then a few seconds later canceled it, would the rogue request still be there?

Good news! (I think). I was going to try your suggestion but first I decided to look through the WMC Guide again. The series request for generic Dateline NBC listed on 1/24 is gone. It must of gotten cleaned out by WMC during last night's EPG123/SD update. I then looked through the WMC Guide all the way to February and don't see anything improperly added or missing. The Scheduled Recording list as well as the Transfer Tool all look normal too. I officially declare the weirdness over. (For now. )

[garyan2]

Good. I was hoping the PVR indexing task would take care of it which is run immediately after an import. Based on what you saw, though, I wasn't sure.